Sridhar Narasimhan

Information systems outsourcing: a study of pre-event firm characteristics

Researchers in information systems (IS) propose several reasons why firms outsource their IS, including reducing costs, generating cash, focusing on core competencies, and gaining access to technical expertise. We examine support for these assertions by comparing the financial characteristics of firms that enter into large-scale IS outsourcing agreements with those of other firms in their respective industries prior to outsourcing. A year-by-year comparison around the time of outsourcing indicates that firms that outsource their IS have significantly lower overhead costs, lower cash reserves, and higher debt before the outsourcing event. Analysis of changes in financial characteristics reveals an increase in long-term debt and financial leverage and declining growth rates prior to the outsourcing event. We argue that firms enter into large-scale IS outsourcing agreements primarily to reduce costs and to generate cash. Consequently, they are more likely to outsource when they have lower cash reserves, higher debt, or declining growth. The management objectives stated in the annual reports of these companies at the time of outsourcing corroborate our major findings.

Research Note-Two Competing Perspectives on Automatic Use: A Theoretical and Empirical Comparison

Although much research has examined conscious use, which involves deliberate evaluation and decision making, we know less about automatic use, which occurs spontaneously with little conscious effort. The objective of this study is to compare two contrasting views in the literature on the nature of automatic use, namely, the habit/automaticity perspective (HAP) and the instant activation perspective (IAP). According to HAP, automatic use occurs because of the force of habit/automaticity without the formation of evaluations and intention; thus, past use-which is a proxy for habit/automaticity-is believed to weaken the evaluations-intention-usage relationship. In contrast, IAP posits that automatic use is simply an expedited form of conscious use; accordingly, as with conscious use, automatic use is still a function of evaluations/intention, so past use will not weaken the evaluations-intention-usage relationship. We tested the competing hypotheses using 2,075 cross-sectional and 990 longitudinal responses from actual users of two online news sites. Our results show that the evaluations-intention-usage relationship is generally weaker among heavier users than among lighter users. These findings suggest that with an increase in past use, user behavior becomes less evaluative and less intentional, in support of the argument that automatic use is driven more by habit/automaticity than by instant activation of cognitions. Overall, this research shows an initial piece of evidence of the moderating role of past use in postadoption phenomena, and it is expected to help the information systems community systematically investigate the important yet underexplored subject of habit/automaticity.

Communication and coordination in the virtual office

As information technology becomes more pervasive, the structure of the traditional work environment is changing. A number of alternatives are emerging where work is performed at remote locations. Existing work practices and managerial strategies are often not appropriate in this environment. In particular, traditional office communication with coworkers and management, which is often dependent on physical proximity, is disrupted. In this study, individual satisfaction with office communication in the telecommuting and conventional work environments is compared through a study of telecommuters and a comparison group of non-telecommuters in nine firms. We investigate the influence of certain organizational factors, such as job characteristics, IT support, and coordination methods, on satisfaction with office communication in the two work environments. We find telecommuters report higher satisfaction with office communication. Our findings indicate that task predictability, IT support, and electronic coordination have similar influences for both groups. We discuss implications of these findings for research and practice.

Offshore outsourcing of software development and maintenance: a framework for issues

Abstract Frameworks intended for identifying and organizing issues associated with offshore outsourcing of software development have focused on project or site selection. Existing frameworks are not comprehensive because they do not fully address one or more of the following issues: (1) the relationship between project characteristics and site suitability, (2) financial and intellectual property issues in the context of software development, and (3) the role of agents outside the outsourcing and vendor firms in the offshore outsourcing process. To overcome these limitations, we propose a more comprehensive framework that links projects (which require resource) and sites (which possess resources). It also includes environmental agents whose actions affect resource availability at the sites. The framework serves as an useful tool to systematically address the issues that arise in the context of offshore outsourcing of software development. We use the framework to review and classify existing literature.

Locating concentrators for primary and secondary coverage in a computer communications network

A model is developed that assigns primary and secondary (backup) concentrator coverage to each terminal site. The objective is to minimize communications costs as well as costs for setting up and operating the concentrators subject to capacity constraints. A relaxation of the problem is studied, and an effective solution procedure that makes the use of this relaxation is developed. Experimental results over a wide range of problem structures show that this solution procedure is very effective. It is also found to be significantly faster than a state-of-the-art commercial integer programming package. >

Capacitated emergency facility sitting with multiple levels of backup

In many service systems, the primary objective is to provide continuous service and/or service within a prespecified time interval. In the public sector, emergency service systems fit into this category. In the private sector, systems providing repair service to critical production facilities and computers constitute another example. In these systems, the concept of multiple service facilities providing backup to each other becomes an important element in the design process. In this paper, we study the capacitated facility siting problem with multiple levels of backup coverage. The problem is formulated as a mathematical program; an efficient solution procedure is developed and computational experiments are reported.

Hierarchial concentrator location problem

Abstract This paper addresses the problem of locating concentrators in a computer communications network where a concentrator could be connected to another concentrator in a hierarchy. A mathematical programming model is developed. The objective is to minimize the costs of setting up and operating the communications network subject to capacity constraints. A Lagrangian relaxation approach is used to develop a heuristic solution procedure which is both efficient and effective. Extensive computational experiments were conducted to test the performance of the solution procedure. Problems with up to 200 terminal and 10 potential concentrator locations were studied. The gap between the feasible solution value and the best lower bound was used to judge the quality of the procedure. The mean gaps were in the range of 3–12% across a wide range of problem structures.

TOWARD A TELEWORK TAXONOMY AND TEST FOR SUITABILITY - A SYNTHESIS OF THE LITERATURE

The current merging of computer and communications technologies is facilitating the trend towardtelework-remote work arrangements enabled by information technology. Organizations today have ever increasing options in the management and distribution of their work processes. In this study, we review the research on telework conducted in the United States, Western Europe, and Japan. We then propose a taxonomy for classifying different types of telework. Using this taxonomy, we examine the spatial, coordination, and temporal structures of different types of telework.Previous research results indicate that the introduction of telework is a complex process and has profound implications for the organization. However, this research critically lacks any guidance for the decision maker in determining the feasibility of implementing telework. We propose a framework for a telework suitability test to determine the appropriateness of telework, in a particular situation. This telework suitability test integrates existing research findings with future research areas.

Telecommunication access network design with reliability constraints

In this paper, we study the problem of the design of telecommunication access networks with reliability constraints. These networks form an important part of the telecommunications infrastructure of large organizations, such as banks. Using data patterned after an actual bank network in the U.S., we formulate an optimization model for this problem which specifically takes into account the various cost, and discount structures offered by telecommunication carriers. We then develop dedicated solution procedures for obtaining solutions. Starting from a cluster solution, we then use perturbation techniques which we developed specifically for this problem within an overall simulated annealing solution algorithm. We show how to make the solution procedure more efficient by implicitly determining the values for many variables. We then report the results of our computational testing for a variety of problems. We compare our solution to a lower bound obtained using a linear programming relaxation. We show that substantial cost savings can be realized with our model, and solution procedure. Finally, we discuss which types of annealing steps in the simulated annealing algorithm are important.

Route selection in backbone data communication networks

Abstract This paper addresses the problem of selecting a route for every pair of communicating nodes in a backbone network in order to minimize the mean delay faced by messages. The problem was previously modeled as a network of M/M/1 queues. We present a modified mathematical programming formulation of the problem. This modification facilitates a new Lagrangian relaxation of this nonlinear optimization problem. A solution procedure utilizing this relaxation is developed. Extensive computational results across a variety of networks are reported. These results indicate that the solution procedure is effective for a wide range of traffic loads.